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"Four years after losing his very first CMA Awards nomination to Zac Brown Band &amp;#x2014; New Artist of the Year &amp;#x2014; Luke Bryan took home the biggest honor at tonight&amp;apos;s 48th Annual CMA Awards: Entertainer of the Year.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\n\r\nCompetition in the category was stiff, with Bryan facing off against the reigning Male and Female Vocalists of the Year &amp;#x2014; country music power couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, both of whom won their own awards earlier in the evening &amp;#x2014; as well as previous Entertainers of the Year Keith Urban and George Strait. During his acceptance speech, Bryan thanked all of his contenders, calling them his &amp;quot;heroes down here on the front row.&amp;quot;\r\nBryan, who performed his most recent Number One hit, &amp;quot;Roller Coaster,&amp;quot; earlier in the night, also gave a shout-out to the award&amp;apos;s presenter, four-time Entertainer of the Year Garth Brooks.\r\n&amp;quot;First of all, I&amp;apos;ve never met Garth,&amp;quot; Bryan explained immediately after reaching the podium. &amp;quot;Hey Garth! Can I hug you again?&amp;quot; Then he got serious, mentioning a pair of &amp;quot;angels in heaven&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; his late brother and sister, both of whom passed away during the early years of Bryan&amp;apos;s career &amp;#x2014; and thanking those still with him, too, from manager Kerri Edwards to wife Caroline Boyer.&amp;#xA0;\r\nFollowing his big win, Bryan addressed media in&amp;#xA0;the backstage press room. &amp;quot;To try to understand that you would win your first CMA award and it&amp;apos;s Entertainer of the Year...I have longed and sought after many years to get one of these in my hands,&amp;quot; the Georgia native&amp;#xA0;said, still in awe. &amp;quot;I am really humbled. I think about the hard work that&amp;apos;s gone to get here. I will never take a second of it for granted. From the bottom of my heart I go out on stage every night to try and sing it and perform it every night like it&amp;apos;s my last.&amp;quot;\r\nThe CMA Awards show wraps up a busy year for Bryan, whose super-succesful That&amp;apos;s My Kind of&amp;#xA0;Night Tour continues in February 2015.&amp;#xA0;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/luke-bryan-entertainer-of-the-year-cma-awards-2014-20141105>